South Africa to Begin Lenacapavir HIV Prevention Injections in Mpumalanga on June 5

South Africa will launch Lenacapavir on June 5 in Mpumalanga, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said after delivering the department's budget vote on Wednesday. In the next two weeks, Lenacapavir stocks will be delivered to depots and health facilities. The rollout will start with 360 health facilities in the high burden districts of South Africa.

Lenacapavir is administered via injection twice a year. It offers patients six months of continuous protection per dose. The Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria will fund the roll-out of lenacapavir for poorer countries including South Africa.

Prioritised categories for Lenacapavir are adolescent girls and young women up to age 24 years, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, female sex workers, men-having-sex-with-men, transgender people and injecting drug users, Motsoaledi explained. 9 years by 2025 from a low of 54 years in 2010.

The country has reduced maternal mortality to 89 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2020 from a high of 240 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010.

3 in 2010. 7 per 100,000 population from a high of 988 per 100,000 population in 2015. AllAfrica reported that these gains followed the world's largest HIV counselling, testing and treatment campaign.

Motsoaledi stated the country is now in a position where it can eliminate HIV/AIDS as a public health threat if South Africans "work hard and work hard together". "As a country we know what is at stake because we had achieved results which are there for everybody to see," he said. Motsoaledi warned that cancer is becoming a major challenge.

Cervical cancer is the 2nd biggest killer of women after breast cancer. Sixty-five percent of all women with diagnosed cervical cancer in South Africa are also HIV+. The WHO formula for cervical cancer elimination is 90-70-90.

South Africa has modified the formula because it bears the world's highest HIV/AIDS burden.